The Next Afternoon - Tatsuyu's POV

I stir slightly.

"Finally."

I open my eyes to see TenTen sitting on the couch in front of me and I groan slightly. "How long did I sleep?" I mumble.

"My guess is 15 hours, you were out cold when I came home, it was futile trying to wake you up." TenTen says to me and I sit up slowly, still half asleep. "You look so cute when you don't know what's going on after you just woke up." TenTen says to me.

"I do?" I ask confused as I rub my eyes and she gushes over me.

Someone knocks on the door and TenTen goes over and opens it.

"Neji?" TenTen asks confused as she lets him in and they walk to the living room.

"Did you just wake up?" Neji asks me with a slight scoff.

"Shut up, you didn't just do 10 C-Rank Missions in a row within the past 7 days with out sustainable food or any sleep, you also didn't have to deal with ungrateful clients, bandits, thieves and so on, not to mention, Lady Tsunade who's treating anyone Chunin or higher as her slaves." I say and TenTen sweat drops.

"As you can see, she's not actually as cool and calm and collective when she wakes up, normally she makes up an argument with me, stating her point on why she shouldn't get out of bed, but today, she seems to be cooperating." TenTen says the last part suspiciously.

"I'm in no mood to argue today." I mutter.

"Anyways, Lee decided to take the surgery." Neji says to us and I nod.

"That sounds like him, Lady Tsunade's been working hard on figuring out how she can improve the chances of success, so far she's only raised it by one percent, so now his chance of survival is 51 percent." I say and Neji nods. "Let me guess, Guy-Sensei said he'd kill himself if Lee didn't survive?" I ask and Neji and TenTen nod. "Figures." I say and Neji watches me.

"You should get up and do something, just because you get some time off, doesn't mean you can slack off." Neji says to me and I blink.

"I was already gonna do stuff today so there's no need to scoff at me, if anything, I should be scoffing at you, you've been lazy in your missions, you have hardly taken any." I say as I get up.

"Tch." Neji says to me.

I wave him off as I walk to my room. "Now to change and get back to my Medical Nin-Jutsu training." I say and TenTen sighs.

"Tatsu, you haven't taken a break for a long time, not since the exams, you shouldn't push yourself farther than you can handle." TenTen says to me.

"I'm fine." I say to her and I walk into my room. I close the door and I take my tank top off and I look in the mirror to see a bruise on my side, a big one. I sigh. "How'd I get that?" I mutter as I heal it.

"Tatsu, how long are you gonna be gone today?" TenTen asks.

"That depends." I say through the door.

I change into my normal outfit and I put my ninja pouches on. I put my ninja sandals on and I walk out of my room while messing my hair up to look normal and I walk to the door, passing the living room to still see Neji in my house. I walk out of the house and I walk down the streets and I find Lee and Lady Tsunade.

"Hey Tatsuyu." Lady Tsunade says with a smile.

"Lady Tsunade, Lee." I greet with a wave.

"Good afternoon Tatsu, I haven't seen you in a while." Lee says to me.

"That's because I'm a slave to Lady Tsunade over there, she's using anyone Chunin or higher as her slaves for missions." I say to him.

"Well, I have decided to take the surgery!" Lee says to me with a grin.

"I heard after Neji so rudely scoffed at me for sleeping in and just woken up, jeez, he's such a jerk." I say to them as I cross my arms. "Then again, neither of us have liked each other since the academy." I say and Lady Tsunade smirks. "Erase the thought from your head Lady Tsunade." I say and she rolls her eyes as messes my hair up more than it already is.

"Fine, fine, well, we better get going now." Lady Tsunade says to me and I nod, the two leave and I head into the forest.

I work on my sword techniques for a while before a chain stops my sword from hitting the training dummy.

"Tatsu, you shouldn't over work yourself." TenTen says to me as I breath heavily.

"Like I said before, I'm fine." I say and TenTen pulls the sword out of my hand.

"Your clearly not fine, you need to let your body rest, you only let yourself sleep and eat, then you either train or go on missions." TenTen says to me and I sigh.

"I'm doing everything I can to help the village grow stronger since the attack from Orochimaru, the village is still extremely weak, my ancestors built this village, I'm going to help fix it by getting stronger and doing missions." I say to her and she sighs, frustrated.

"That's enough, its like your punishing yourself." TenTen says and I grab my sword from the ground and I turn back to the tree and she gasps slightly as I frown. "You are punishing yourself." TenTen says to me and I sigh.

"I'm not punishing myself, I'm merely making myself stronger to protect the village my great Grandfather protected with his life and his brother my great uncle did the same, so, no I'm not punishing myself, I'm just pushing myself." I say and she hits me upside the head.

"That's enough, you haven't eaten yet today either, so don't push yourself on an empty stomach." TenTen says to me.

I stay silent as I focus and I flow my chakra into my blade, and just as I'm about to strike the tree, TenTen jumps in front of me and I change the trajectory and I fly over her shoulder with my blade and I flip and land in a crouched position. "What the hell TenTen, you could have gotten yourself killed by doing that." I say as I get up, sheathing my katana as I walk over to her.

"It was the only way to get you to look at me." TenTen says to me with a smirk.

I sigh and I start walking. "Are you coming? I'm heading to the Sandwich place to pick up dinner for myself, you can get something if you want, my treat." I say and she runs to catch up with me.

"Awesome!" TenTen says with a grin.

I cross my arms over my chest as we walk and once we get to the sandwich shop she orders food and so do I and we sit and eat at the park.

"So, when did you decide to push yourself?"

I glance behind me to see Neji and I roll my eyes and I continue to eat.

"Hey Neji!" TenTen says with a grin.

I ignore him and I finish eating. "I'm going home TenTen, see ya." I say and I do half of a ram sign and I disappear and reappear in the living room.

I head to my room and I grab a towel and I head to the bathroom. I put my hair up in the towel and I strip and I turn on the hot water for a bath and I lay in the bath for a while until a knock sounds at the door to the apartment and I get out.

I put on a bathrobe and I head to the door and I open it to see Kakashi and I sweat drop. "What are you doing here?" I ask him.

"Oh, did I interrupt something?" Kakashi asks me.

I give him a deadpanned look. "I just got out of the bath, again, what are you doing here?" I ask him.

"Lady Tsunade is requesting your presence, the surgery was successful by the way." Kakashi says to me and I nod and he poofs away.

I walk to my room and I change into a dark blue long sleeve sweater and black leggings with my black ninja sandals and I head to the hospital. Lady Tsunade greets me at the door.

"Alright Tatsuyu, as Kakashi told you, Lee's surgery was successful, but, you and Neji will be helping his rehabilitation." Lady Tsunade says to me with a smile.

"Fine." I say and she grins at me.

"Your dismissed." Lady Tsunade says and I sweat drop.

"Ok then." I say and I head back to the apartment and I lay on the couch, reading up more on Medical Nin-Jutsu.

TenTen gets back after a while and sees me reading and sighs. "Don't you ever take a break?" TenTen asks me.

"Nope, when I decide to take a break, is when I'm dead or if I decide to sleep." I say to her and TenTen grabs my book and looks at it.

"Medical Nin-Jutsu studies, again?" TenTen asks me.

"Yeah, I feel like I could do better in that area." I say to her and she rolls her eyes and puts my book on the shelf.

"Well its late and you have missions tomorrow." TenTen says to me and I pout.

"Damn." I say and I get up and walk to my room. "I don't wanna work tomorrow." I mutter and I lay on my bed under the covers and I fall asleep.

The Next Day

"Here you go." Lady Tsunade says handing me a C-Rank Mission.

I sigh. "Ok, ok, I'm calm, I wish I was able to relax yesterday but a certain Hyuga boy just had to ruin my day yesterday." I mutter as I walk out.

I walk down the streets with a sigh and I run to the gates.

"Back to missions again?" Izumo asks me and I sigh glumly.

"Unfortunately I'm back to being a slave." I say and Izumo and Kotesu chuckle at that.

"So, what's this mission?" Kotesu asks me.

"To stop some thieves at the outpost north of here." I say to them and they nod. I walk out of the gates and I head to the outpost where a group of thieves surround me.

"Oh look, its just a girl." One of them says tauntingly.

I blink unamused. "First C-Rank and someone's already trying to make me mad." I mutter and after a second of me doing nothing, they're on the ground and I look over to see Guy-Sensei. "Guy-Sensei." I say with a nod.

"Tatsuyu! Have you heard anything about the surgery yet?" Guy-Sensei asks me.

"Yes." I say and he gets really eager.

"Tell me, was it good or bad? Wait, I don't want to know, yes I do, no I don't, I'll just have Lady Tsunade tell me with her youthful power!" Guy-Sensei says overly eager and I just follow him back.

"That was fast Tatsuyu." Kotesu says to me.

"Guy-Sensei took care of them while I was in the center, letting them prepare themselves." I say and they nod.

"WAIT! YOU WERE ON A MISSION?" Naruto yells at me.

I glance over. "Yeah? So what?" I ask him.

"Take me with you on your next mission, please?" Naruto begs me.

I blink and push him aside. "Not a chance, you'd get under my feet and scare my prey away with your loud talking." I say and he sulks.

"Prey?" Izumo asks amused.

"Do you think I said something wrong?" I ask him and he shakes his head.

"No Ms. Chairman, I just found it amusing that you said prey." Izumo says to me.

My eyes narrow at him and I sigh. "Guy-Sensei ran off, I better find him before Lady Tsunade yells at him for taking care of the thieves before I could." I say and they nod. I head to the Hokage office and I walk in behind Guy-Sensei.

"Already done Tatsuyu?" Lady Tsunade asks amused.

I point to Guy-Sensei.

"I took out some thieves who were surrounding her at the north outpost." Guy-Sensei says and Lady Tsunade's eye twitches slightly.

"Tatsuyu was assigned to get rid of those thieves." Lady Tsunade says and Guy-Sensei pales slightly.

"Its fine, it did no harm and the mission was completed, there's no need to yell." I say and Lady Tsunade sighs and holds out a paper.

"Take Naruto with you this time, he's been getting on my nerves about not receiving enough missions and complaining saying your getting to many." Lady Tsunade says to me and my eye twitches slightly as the paper in my hand turns soggy.

"What? That little twit, he should be busy training not begging for field work. I sure as hell would love to train but I'm being used as a slave for C-Rank missions, which is field work, what a little twit." I say as I walk out of the room and I find Naruto down the road. I grab the back of his jump suit as I walk, dragging him with me. "Ok listen here you little twerp, you've been complaining to Lady Tsunade to much about your lack of missions and about how I get to many, Lady Tsunade is making me take you with me on this mission, your to keep quiet about complaining after this and your going to train, you got that?" I ask him and he smiles nervously at the deadly aura I'm giving off.

"Yes Ma'am." Naruto says to me and we get to the gates.

"We're just heading to the south outpost to pick up some supplies and bring them back, ok? Simple enough for you?" I ask Naruto.

"Why couldn't I get a better mission like a B or A-Rank with someone cooler?" Naruto complains.

I hit him on the head and he falls on the ground. "Listen here, you won't complain on this mission, I want this over as soon as possible so that your complaining about your lack of missions, ends. So shut up and start walking." I say to Naruto while Izumo and Kotesu are laughing.

"Hey, hey, hey, is that anyway to treat a fellow Genin?" Jiraiya asks behind us.

"I'm Chunin Jiraiya, and he's done so much complaining, Lady Tsunade decided to send him on this mission with me even though I don't need help." I say to Jiraiya and his mouth gapes open in shock.

"Your Chunin?" Jiraiya asks me.

"Yes, why do you think the number of C-Ranks has finally gone down? I've been the one doing most of them, now if Naruto used the energy he uses to complain to Lady Tsunade to train instead, he would also be Chunin, but no, he has to make my life harder." I say and Naruto laughs nervously as I start walking. "Come on, I want back by 5, 4 if were lucky." I say to Naruto.

"Yes Ma'am." Naruto says and follows me.

After about a half hour of Naruto searching and being an idiot, I get annoyed.

"Which way is south Naruto?" I ask him.

"This way, no, that way, no, its that way, I'm sure of it!" Naruto says pointing in different directions.

"Which way does the sun rise, North, South, East, or West?" I ask him.

"I don't know, I never check." Naruto says to me stupidly.

I growl in frustration. "It's rising from the east and setting at the west, if we go left, that would be north since we're facing east, so we go right Naruto, towards the south." I say to him and he nods, not understanding me one bit. "That's it, just follow me, I'm tired of this." I say and I head to the outpost with Naruto behind me.

I grab my bag of supplies and Naruto grabs his and I lead the way back to the village and I toss my bag at Izumo.

"Done and its only 4:30, not when I wanted, but close enough." I say and Izumo nods. "Those are simple materials, but they're also fragile, so don't drop the bag to many times." I say to Izumo who nods.

"Where do I put this?" Naruto asks me.

"With Izumo, these are gate guard supplies, the south outpost makes stuff for our gate guards, the north outpost grows food and what not and is a target to thieves 'cause of that, the east outpost forges weaponry, while the west outpost forges armor." I say to Naruto who doesn't get what I'm say and I groan in frustration. "I GIVE UP! HOPELESS!" I yell annoyed and Izumo sweat drops.

"Now, now, don't go raising your voice." Kakashi says as he leaves.

I inhale and exhale, clearly annoyed. "I'm done, I'm going home after reporting my mission and I'm going to relax, I might even head to the hot springs." I say as I walk to the office with Naruto behind me and I knock.

"Come in."

I walk in after composing myself and I walk over to Lady Tsunade and all the papers around me start to crinkle from the electrifying aura I'm giving off. "Mission was successful, I'm going home, that idiot has frustrated me beyond belief, good luck." I say to her and Lady Tsunade stares at me shocked as I walk out.

I head back to the apartment and I take a long, hot, relaxing bath, before I shower, getting everything out of my hair and then I change into a loose fitting dark blue long sleeve with black pajama pants and I walk to the living room, grabbing my all time favorite book from the shelf and I lay on my back, relaxing while reading, when TenTen walks in.

"TATSU!" She cries sulking and I sit up as she sits next to me.

"What's wrong?" I ask her.

"My hormones, my thing started again so now my hormones are messed up again." TenTen says to me while crying.

I pat her shoulder, not at all sorry and I get up. "Well I'm hungry." I say and I walk to the kitchen.

"Were you taking a break?" TenTen asks me.

"Yes, I'm taking the rest of the day off because Lady Tsunade decided I should take Naruto with me on my last mission and it frustrated me so much, I wanted to throw him to another planet." I say and TenTen nods.

I make myself a frozen dinner and I sit at the counter eating while reading as TenTen gets herself healthy food.

"Screw being healthy, this is convenient." I say and TenTen rolls her eyes and once I finish I throw the box away and I head to the living room where I read my book until I fall asleep.
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